At least once a year, I need a little motivation and reassurance that I am on the right life-path. I find such encouragement in self-help books. Much of who I am today may well be accredited to the decade’s worth of self-help books I’ve read. Currently, I am reading Be Your Future Self, NOW by Benjamin Hardy.
After High School
While struggling to find myself after high school, my mother, who was also a self-help book reader, gave me and my sister a little book called The Game of Life, and How to Play It by Florence Shinn. Seeing as this was before the internet, how my mother knew about this old author is still beyond me.
Florence was an early 20th century metaphysical author, artist, and New Thought spiritual teacher who was also the great, great, granddaughter of a signer of the Declaration of Independence. Writing must have been in her DNA because this same great, great, grandfather was also the earliest documented composer of song in America. Another interesting factoid about Florence: she was modern woman. As a divorcee with her own money in 1912, she was a rarity, in her time.
Though I was not a big reader, I devoured this book. Admittedly, it was a farfetched read, but still, it was exactly what I needed to hear at the time. And it gave me the confidence and courage to move forward with what lay ahead; the scary, unknown parts of my adult life.
The Secret
Since then, I’ve realized, interestingly, pretty much all self-help books have the same theme, which you can never hear enough of: Take risks, dream big and visualize your future, learn from your successes and failures, stay grateful, believe in a higher power, and of course work hard.
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